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Lynching

Strange Fruit

by Boris Gorelick

While Gorelick’s lithograph shares its title with Lewis Allen’s famous song, Gorelick’s inspiration actually came from a specific newspaper story he read: a young black man was seized from his house by a group of white men lead by the local sheriff, then dragged to the jailhouse and given to a mob of Klansmen. 

The man was lynched on a nearby tree, and later discovered by his wife.  Gorelick’s abstracted lithograph was meant as “a personal statement of outrage and protest” at this event.

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Boris Gorelick - Strange Fruit

Boris Gorelick, Strange Fruit, 1939.  Lithograph, 10 ⅜ x 13 ⅞ in.

Museum Purchase, Derby Fund, from the Philip J. and Suzanne Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary Art 1930-1970

Within Lynching...
Joe Jones Joe Jones Boris Gorelick Louis Lozowick James Turnbull James Turnbull

Race Relations Anti-Semitism Lynching
Spirituality Civil Rights
Romare Bearden
George Biddle
Julius T. Bloch
Adolf Dehn
Joseph Delaney
Boris Gorelick
Robert Gwathmey
Joe Jones
Jacob Lawrence
Louis Lozowick
Elijah Pierce
Ben Shahn
George Tooker
James Turnbull


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